Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore a conceptual model for analyzing customers' perceptions of using mobile commerce services for online shopping. This paper provides insights into consumer behavior, and the results have important implications for designers, managers, marketers, and system providers of mobile shopping (m‐shopping) web sites.

Design/methodology/approach
– An empirical investigation was carried out to test the hypotheses. The samples include 369 professional participants. For testing the relationships of the model, structural equation modeling (SEM) is used.

Findings
– The results demonstrate that anxiety, which is an affective barrier against using innovative systems, is a key negative predictor of a customer's intentions to use mobile phones. Also, the consumer's self‐perception of mobile skillfulness significantly affects anxiety, enjoyment, and usefulness. Furthermore, enjoyment, usefulness, and compatibility have an impact on a customer's behavioral intentions.

Practical implications
– The findings of this study help to understand what hinders or encourages the m‐shopping intention of online customers.

Originality/value
– The results not only help develop a sophisticated understanding of mobile commerce theories for researchers, but they also offer useful knowledge to those involved in promoting m‐shopping to potential purchasers. The value of the paper is that the results could be applied to other portable information technology service adoptions, such as personal digital assistants (PDA), smart phones, advanced mobile phones, and portable global positioning systems (GPS).